Microsoft is preparing to ship its Windows Phone 8.1 update with two significant changes: a notification center and a Siri-like personal assistant. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have revealed to The Verge that the company is currently beta testing copies of Windows Phone 8.1 internally, with plans to fully detail its features at BUILD 2014 in April. A highly requested notification center feature will be added to the software, and we're told it's enabled by swiping down from the top of the screen in a similar way to iOS and Android.

If that works, that would be great. I'd love to leave my phone on my desk and give instructions to it. Having to manually activate the digital ears you already lose time you are trying to spare using your voice.

But worse, it makes ik unnatural and thus takes away from the experience. It's like having to pinch your wife's nose before she can accept voice input.

I've tried the OS X voice control and some third party stuff to control my computer, but the mayor downside of that is... you can't listen to music! It either messes up the voice input, or doesn't react at all. Sometimes it even reacts to the music.